Summary

This report is conducted by IRIS Group for the Agency for Institutions and Educational Grants. The report is part of the background material, which was prepared for the evaluation of the Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) in 2018.

The purpose of this report is to examine the users and activities of the programmes run under the IFD in the period 2015-2017.

To assess the characteristics of the IFD’s users and potential user groups, the analysis builds on data from the InnovationDenmark database and various registers from Statistics Denmark. The report finds that companies, which have received funding from IFD:

Are larger and younger than the average Danish private company.

Are more likely to be geographically located in the Capital Region of Denmark (45 per cent). In comparison, 33 per cent of all Danish companies operate from the Capital Region.

Have better educated employees, are more likely to undertake R&D activities, have a higher intensity, and initiate more product- and process innovation activities.

Furthermore, the report finds that:

During 2015-2017 universities and other higher education institutions (HEI) were involved 2,587 times as project applicants, and a total of 772 HEI applications received funding from one of the two IFD programmes, Grand Solutions and Industrial Researcher.

The Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen accounted for more than half of all HEI participation in 2015-2017, while the top four universities in Denmark made up almost 85 per cent.